Shadows Across the Desert

Proxy Wars in the Middle East

Abstract

In the evolving world of geopolitics, proxy war is a strategic tool that great powers and states employ readily to pursue their objective indirectly by avoiding direct confrontation, at the same time inflicting damage on their rivals. This strategy enables the players the opportunity to widen their strategic reach without dipping their feet in the turbulent waters of direct conflict. While looking into the contemporary state of affairs in  West Asian geopolitics, this strategic instrument has become handy in the interstate rivalries that are transforming the domestic upheavals into regionalized conflicts backed by ideological and geopolitical contestation with external sponsorship. This led to the intensification of problems in a region already torn by political instabilities and sectarian disputes. This work will look into the long standing rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the two major powers in the region, that has transformed the security landscape. Especially since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the feud between these countries became regionalized through proxy wars in Iraq, Yemen, Syria and beyond, spilling the seeds of conflict throughout the region. The centuries-old friction between the Sunni and Shia sects in Islam became clearly reflected in the dynamics between these two states, with the 1979 revolution that led to the establishment of a Shia state in Iran posing ideological and political challenges to Sunni monarchy in Saudi Arabia. These events, exacerbated with the security concerns and ambition for regional domination, turned the neighbouring countries into a battlefield. The study tries to synthesise and understand the proxy dynamics and the factors driving it along with discussing the implication of this on regional stability.